Dormant, not Dead
by The Wierdest One
Summary: Four teens stumble across a not-so-dead Overwatch... What could go wrong? Please give feedback, at the moment I have almost no idea if you people are enjoying it.
1. Chapter 1

**Quick Note: I apologize in advance if some bits of this get quite random. My imagination is a weird place. Other than that I hope you enjoy my first story.** **Also I do not own ANY Blizzard characters or concepts etc.**

The south east of England is not the sort of place where you expect an international conspiracy to be stumbled upon. Much less for anything of mild interest to actually happen. (Speaking as someone who lives there I can confirm this) Nevertheless a conspiracy (of sorts.

Can a good thing be a conspiracy?) is what 4 friends stumbled across while taking a walk across the South Downs. I should probably get on with the story at this point.

"I am willing to bet that you are wrong on this". Tom's grin stretched even further across his face which irritated his friend Henry even further. The two other people in our quartet of protagonists were watching the exchange with increasing amusement. Sophie and Laura were two of the prettiest girls (not to mention the nicest) in their school and both Tom and Henry considered themselves quite lucky to have them as friends seeing as they were not the sort of people whom the nice girls generally wanted to be with at all. None of the four were exactly sure why they hung out together but they all were happy together so had reached an unspoken agreement not to question the matter.

Moving back to the story. The reason the four had braved the British Summer to go out on the Downs was because Tom claimed to have found the key to a metal door that was set into the hillside inside a cluster of beech trees perched precariously on the hillside. He had found the key stuck in the fork of a stick that he had been throwing for his dogs (Higgs and Boson) while walking them at the bottom of the hill. Henry was so confident that Tom was wrong he had made a twenty pound bet with hom about it. They had all seen the door before but none of them knew what lay behind it as it was locked. It definitely wasn't rusted as it looked far too new.

Henry was still adamant that Tom was wrong. "Come on what are the chances that it's the right key. For all we know someone dropped it here fifty years ago. I fail to see how you are so sure." Tom laughed "because my friend, there are few keys that are three pronged and as I am sure you remember that door has 3 keyholes not one." Henry opened his mouth then closed closed it again. His face went from gloating to surprised in the space of a second. He was silent for a moment as they tramped on through the valley. "That's not fair, you never told me that. The bets off" Tom considered for a moment theb sighed, "fine but can I interest anyone in a new, unrigged bet?"

"Go on" said Laura. "The bet is over what is behind this mystery door!" He said with a flourish as he gestured at the door. "Before anyone nicks this I am putting ten quid on a WWII bunker" The others considered. Laura put ten pounds on a maintenance shaft for the railway tunnel which "As I am sure _you_ remember we are very close to if not on top of" Before Tom could debate this Henry leapt in with a bet on an old sewage treatment centre. Tom was fairly sure that was wrong as they were 3 miles away from the village and a good ten miles from the nearest town. Sophie who had been silent up until this point put her bet in: "I know this is a long shot but I think it might be an old Overwatch base, they constructed them all over the world so it isn't that far-fetched." The others thought it was quite far-fetched but as Tom put it: "if you want to give us money we aren't complaining but now! The moment of truth!" Tom loved melodrama and the others had learnt the hard way it was useless to get him to hurry up. He fished the key out of his pocket with a flourish and inserted it into the lock. He then took it out abd twisted it so that the square prong was lined up with the square hole. "Smooth" snorted Henry. "Yeah yeah, working on it." He finally got the key in and turned it. The door swung open without the traditional noisome creak. Behind it there was a concrete passage sloping gently down behind it. It is worth mentioning at this point that the door was double the height of Henry who was tallest at just shy of six foot. The passage was on a similar size.

"Ladies first" said Henry with a grin as he turned his phone's torch on. Laura and Sophie both glared at him, Laura turned on her torch and marched in closely followed by Sophie. The passage sloped gently round into the hillside. After about fifty metres they came down to another iron door. This one hung limply open. It had clearly been that way for a long time as there was a layer of dust on the floor that hadn't been disturbed in a while. Henry stopped and pointed at the door. "Does anyone else find that really quite creepy?" No one answered which really didn't help.

Henry pushed the door open and shone his torch into the gap. The beam fell on rows of shelves running away into the darkness. They filed through the doorway and into the room beyond. The shelves were packed with cardboard boxes of all sizes with some bigger, iron boxes interspersed on the lower shelves. "What do you reckon this is for?" asked Laura, her voice echoing away into the darkness "some sort of Base?" She shone the torch beam around the walls until it fell on a light switch set into the wall. She flipped it tentatively. There was a series of loud clunks followed by a whirring noise from somewhere further into the darkness. "Generator?" asked Tom. With a loud ping row of lights flickered on illuminating the nearest row of shelves.

Now they could see the full extent of the room, on the wall about a metre away from the door was a sign. "Emergency Base 42" "Aha" said Laura triumphantly "I was right, it is an archive." Henry interrupted her "Yeah but for who, or what?" Sophie called out from the far side of the room. "I can answer that!" She pointed to a sign on the wall which was displaying what seemed to be a virtual logbook. The first entry read: "Petras Act passed, Base 42 entering Hibernation." The second read: "Recall initiated, Base 42 reactivating." The first was from about five and a half years ago. The second was only six months old. "What's the Petras Act?" asked Tom. Sophie groaned, "Tom do you ever pay attention in history?" "No, not really." "Sophie muttered something about having a brain like a goldfish before continuing. "The Petras Act was passed five years ago by the United Nations. It renders any and all Overwatch activity illegal" "Oh" exclaimed Laura quietly, her eyes widening as she caught on. "You mean this is..." she tailed off as she realised. Sophie finished for her. "This is an Overwatch base, but thats not the important bit. The second log is more important." "Why?" Said all three of the others simultaneously. "Because _somebody_ has reactivated this base meaning Overwatch is active again!"

"Finally, you got there in the end, took you a while though didn't it." All four friends jumped.

None of them had spoken, the voice had come from behind them. They turned around to see a blue orb of light bobbing towards them from out

of the darkness. "No" said Laura in disbelief "it can't be." "I think it is" said Henry, his jaw dropping.

Out of the gloom emerged one of Overwatch's most famous operatives: Lena Oxten, a.k.a.: Tracer.

 **A.N. Well there is my first ever chapter, I really hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review and tell me how I got on. Hopefull I'll be able to update this about once a fortnight but that may vary depending on homework and other stuff.** **p.s sorry the story took a little while to get going, it's just how I imagined it.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A.N. I apologize in advance for any spelling errors. I sometimes write on the train or bus home which can get quite bumpy.**

Thankfully she agreed not to call the police after they explained what they were doing in the base, which really was very nice of her. After listening to their story, which made her laugh when she heard about the bets, she decided to call Gibraltar and see if she could talk to Winston. The news that his personal hero was still a free gorilla was almost too much for Tom who was already close to fainting. "Overwatch is still active" he said with a massive grin over and over until Laura told him to put a sock in it

From the other side of the room they could hear her voice as she talked to somebody over the phone. It was faint but audible. "Base 42 has been breached... No I can't 'knock them off' they're kids... They found a key outside... Well I don't know, probably someone chucked it away after Petras... Anyway it doesn't matter, what do you want me to do?.. What? You're serious?.. Why?.. A hunch?.. Winston all they did was pick up a key and open a door, thats hardly breaking into a secure vault..." They could almost hear Tracer fuming "Fine, but I would like it noted that when I said we need more people this is not what I meant. I did mention they're children." There was a long pause before Tracer spoke again, this time much quieter. I know, but they're children. What do we tell their parents if something happens?..Yes I know they would understand the risks involved but I'm still not comfortable about this... Fine but you're asking them yourself. I'll see you tomorrow."

She hung up and they heard her footsteps coming back towards them out of the gloom. Her face was no longer upbeat but was very grim and would not have looked out of place at a funeral. She took breathed deeply before speaking. "Right, He wants to talk to you, and your parents. I imagine he is probably ringing them now" "What does he want to talk about?" asked Sophie, with not a little curiosity. A smile tugged at the corner of Tracer's mouth "that would be telling, now run along and I'll see you tomorrow at Henry's place. I expect you know where the exit is." she said, the smile creeping back. "Why my place? asked Henry. "As I remember it has the biggest living room, and the nicest sofas." "Henry shrugged. "Can't argue with that."

Just as they were going back into the concrete passage Henry turned and called out "Wait, Tracer" she pulled her head out of the box she had been rummaging in "Oh call me Lena please, Tracer was only ever a call sign" "Well you said Winston was calling our parents." "Mhmm. Finally, knew it was here somewhere." She pulled a bundle of black cloth out of the box. "I have a feeling I'll be needing this, anyway you wanted to know we have your parent's numbers? Well that would be spoiling it but I do expect you'll find out tomorrow. Now be off with you, I have things to do" There was a new twinkle in her eye.

They traipsed back up the concrete passage. Nobody spoke until they were back outside on the Downs. "So" said Tom "anyone care to bet on what Winston wants with us?"

 **A.N. Well, thats the second chapter done, sorry it was a bit shorter than the last one but number three should be longer. All depends how long the meeting takes next time. :-) As always feel free to leave a review and tell me how I did.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here it is, chapter three! Enjoy**! **Sorry it's a little later, I've been surfing and doing homework over half-term.**

Chapter 3

True to her word the doorbell of Henry's house rang at 2 o clock precisely the next day. Henry's dad led her into the lounge where everyone was assembled. She greeted all of their parents by name. "Spoilers" was all she said when Henry asked how she knew them all. "Will the big guy be joining us?" Asked Sophie's mother. "He should be, I definitely told him where we we meeting and-" she was interrupted by a tap on the french windows that led into the garden.

Outside sat a large gorilla in a Havard T-shirt and a pair of tent-sized jeans, complete with a pair of glasses perched on his furry face. He looked like the simian version of Tom. "Oh so that's why you wanted to meet here" laughed Laura as Henry got up to unlock the doors. It also explained why the sofas had been pushed back against the wall, and why any delicate ornaments has been removed from above the fireplace. Winston squeezed in through the glass doors and sat down heavily in front of the TV in the corner. "Right" he began in his deep, bass voice. "Where shall I start?"

"Maybe at part where we get a call from a not-so-dead gorilla?" asked Henry's dad. "Not to mention the proposition that you mentioned concerning our children" added Laura's mother. "Proposition is one way of putting it" muttered Lena. Winston gave her a look over his glasses before continuing. "As you are aware I activated Recall to try and stop the world tipping into a new Omnic Crisis. A few minutes before I activated Recall the base had been attacked by Talon Operatives including one who is known as Reaper." "Oh so not just because you missed the old days?" asked Tom's dad with a raised eyebrow. "And while I think about it why didn't we pick up the Recall signal?" Winston thought for a moment then pulled out at tablet PC from the back pocket of his jeans. It looked ridiculously small in his dustbin-lid-sized hands. He tapped away for a moment and after a couple of "Hmms" and one "Really?" he put it away again. "Well it appears that I made a slight error in sending tue Recall signal." Everyone but Winston raised an eyebrow, except for Henry who had never been able to do it. He glanced round the room and sighed "is anyone ever going to teach ne how to do that?" "No" replied his three friends in perfect sync. "Error?" asked Tom's dad. "No need to go into that" replied Winston looking slightly bashful.

"Anyway, Omnic Crisis, Talon. Umm so, might as well get to the point, the reason I asked you here is mostly on a whim, and me going out on a limb." "He's nervous" whispered Henry's dad to his wife "he's started rhyming his sentences." Henry's mum nudged him gently "you'd be nervous if you were a gorilla" Winston continued, "We don't have nearly enough people to do what we'd like, which is, well, do what we did before. So umm, when I heard about your children and how they got into the base I thought umm-" Laura's dad cut him off. "I can see where this is going, you would like to train our children as agents." "Umm yes, you hit the nail on it's metaphorical head." The parents were silent for a while, eventually Laura's dad broke the silence, by kicking the four teens out of the room so they could "discuss" the proposition.

They went upstairs to Henry's room and played increasingly competitive online rounds of Splatoon 8, I would relay all of the things that were said during this time to you, the loyal readers, but it's trivial and not relevant at this stage. Suffice to say most of it was spent discussing the various tactics one could use with the new weapons on Splatoon including the InkPiano. You can fill in the blanks.

After an hour of heated splatting and then a slower paced but equally heated game of Risk. There was a knock at the door. Lena stuck her head round the door "who's winning?" She asked with a raised eyebrow and a slight smile. Sophie studied the board, "it's a finely balanced deadlock between Tom and Laura in the Americas with me and Henry waiting in Asia and Europe to invade whenever they stop squabbling over Panama." Lena laughed, "I think I'll have to play you lot at Dungeons and Dragons at some point. Anyway, come on down, they've finally finished deliberating." They all trooped downstairs into the lounge. All the parents were looking at each other with unreadable expressions on their faces.

Tom broke the tense silence with the simple yet ever expressive "well?"

 **A.N. Of course I'm going to leave it at that cliffhanger, what did you expect?**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Winston replied first "your parents have decided to allow you to come and train, on the strict understanding that you won't do any missions until fully trained and that they will be informed of any such missions. I have also explained that this isn't entirely in line with the law but your parents have still agreed to allow you to come, provided, of course, if you want to." The four of them grinned ecstatically. "I think we can take that as a yes. You will start tonight, kindly be at the station down the road by midnight, platform two please, more will be explained henceforth." And with that, he sidestepped gently (as gently as possible for a large gorilla) out of the French windows and ambled out of the back gate.

Lena laughed quietly to herself, "Gorilla in a Harvard shirt, never gets old. I'll see you tomorrow then I expect." She winked and blinked out of the windows to the gate, she turned back and waved before lightly vaulting over the gate.

The four of them looked excitedly at each other before launching into a barrage of questions. Sophie's mum silenced them with a hand, "you won't get anything out of us because we honestly don't know. All I know is that you lot are extremely lucky so I wouldn't waste it by missing your train because you didn't pack." The four looked slightly crestfallen. Sophie piped up: "when you say lucky, do you mean lucky-because-we're-talented or

dumb-luck lucky?" "Maybe a bit of both but I'd advise you pack now." They all went home to pack, with the exception of Henry who went upstairs to pack.

(A.N. Through the magic of fiction we skip several uneventful hours to about quarter to midnight at the village station in the waiting shelter on platform 2, southbound line towards Ashford International)

Tom had arrived first as per. Whenever they went anywhere by train (which was often as it was the fastest way to get anywhere) he was usually there about half an hour in advance otherwise he became paranoid they would miss the train. The others arrived about ten minutes later. Laura broke the silence: "so what are we supposed to do now? The first train isn't until half four." Henry shrugged "maybe he just wanted us to wait here so he could pick us up." "Couldn't he have just taken us from our houses?" Henry shrugged and flopped down onto a seat. Laura yawned "could he at least be here soon so I can sleep on the way to which ever underground bunker we're going to. What is it Sophie?" Sophie frowned "it's nothing, I just thought I could hear-" she broke off and then got up and stuck her head out of the door.

"Umm, you know how we were wondering how he was picking us up. I can answer that." They grabbed their suitcases and hurried out onto the platform. From out if the darkness they could just make out the headlamps of a train along with the rattle if the wheels. Right on cue the speaker above the platform crackled into life: "the train now approaching platform two is the 12:00 Southern service to Ashford International calling at Eastbourne Central, Bexhill St Leanords Warrior Square, Hastings, Three Oaks, Doleham, Rye, Appledore, Ham Street and Ashford International. This train is the service from Brighton." Sophie shrugged "guess that's our train."

The train glid smoothly into the station. It was clearly not the usual train. It was a high speed model on midnight blue livery with the Overwatch logo emblazoned on its flank. The doors hissed open. "Well this is it. We get on that train and there's no going back" said Laura. Henry said what they were all thinking: "what are we waiting for?"

An hour later in the Railway Control Centre near Ashford in Kent the sole operator monitoring the various overnight freight services woke with a start as an alarm went off. He ran across to his screen. The points had been overridden and were now set to allow mainline trains onto the international line. He frantically began typing but try as he might he couldn't get the points to close. He pulled up a live feed and saw to his horror this was no computer error. He began typing again but they still wouldn't budge. He was about to hit the big red button to halt all trains in the Ashford area when he saw the points suddenly close again. He breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed into his chair, mopping his brow. Less than a minute later a packed Eurostar train shot past towards London while freight train full of oil rumbled down the mainline.

 **A.N. No prizes for guessing what caused that particular issue on the railways. As always please leave a review and tell me how I did. :-)**


	5. Chapter 5

**A.N. Finally! Been waiting to do this chapter for a long time. Enjoy the tour.**

Chapter 5

The train shot through the Mediterranean countryside with only the brief light from one of the carriages to show its passing. Onboard were four dozing teenagers who were about to be plunged into something they had only ever dreamt of.

Sophie woke first. She never slept well while traveling. She left her seat carefully so as not to wake the others and wandered to the back of the train to stretch her legs. Outside the windows countryside was rushing past. On the horizon the first pink tinges were beginning to tickle the horizon. She grabbed a seat to steady herself as she peered out of the window. In the distance she could just make out a faint protrusion on the horizon, slowly growing as they sped towards it.

They still had no idea where they were heading. Wherever it was, it was definitely not Ashford International. They had shot through that station just an hour after leaving. Impressive as trains usually took at least two hours to make the trip. From then until now it had been too dark to work out where they were going but in the faint light of dawn Sophie had a hunch. She was sure Tom would be pleased.

Laura was waking just as she got back. "Are we there yet?" she asked blearily, wiping grit from her eyes. "No" replied Sophie "but I have a hunch." Laura raised an eyebrow. "Put it this way, if we tell Tom he won't be quiet until we get there" "Oh right" said Laura, catching on. Tom let out a loud snore. The movement making his head droop further. Laura and Sophie looked at each other then at Tom. Then they both started shaking with silent laughter.

An hour later they felt they train slow slightly as they neared their destination. Henry peered out of the window. The protrusion that Laura had seen earlier was clearly a small mountain perched on the coast. As they drew nearer they passed passed what looked like a border post with a short queue of cars. They rocked as they went over a set of points and curved sharply away from the mainline. To their right they could see a station on the outskirts of a small town perched on the headland in the shadow of the mountain. They curved away round the mountain and began to slow a lot quicker. The train plunged into a tunnel in the mountain and drew to a halt in an underground station.

Laura motioned to Tom and Henry, "shall we wake the sleeping beauties?" "I'm not sleeping beauty" said Henry, suddenly wide awake, making them both jump. "That's Tom's job." "Don't you moan and groan a bit when you wake up?" asked Laura with a touch of irritation. "Nope" he replied "it's like you and your eyebrows." Both girls raised one eyebrow making Henry roll his eyes. Their face-manipulation contest was interrupted by a loud yawn from Tom. He rubbed his eyes and asked blearily "are we there yet?"

They grabbed their bags and made their way to the end of the carriage. The station looked like any other. It had all the things you'd expect to see in a station: benches, departure boards, etc. "Where are we?" asked Henry thinking aloud. Tom pointed down towards the end of the platform where the buffers were. "I expect she can tell us." By the end of the train there was a very familiar face waiting for them.

"Heya" said Lena when they eventually made it to the end of the platform. "Welcome to the party, I expect you probably have a few questions. I can guess your first one, the answer is above your heads." They all looked looked up at the ceiling. There was an Overwatch logo with "Welcome to Watchpoint: Gibraltar." proudly carved below it. Lena grinned at the looks on their faces. They formed a spectrum of mild surprise to the look of a five year old when they see their Christmas presents. She motioned to the doors, "I expect you'd like a tour."

She led them through the corridors until they reached a large intersection of several corridors. In the middle their were four glass lifts with a spiral staircase wrapped around them. Lena stopped and pointed to each corridor. "Ok so, the corridor we've just come down leads to all the transport. There's the train station, the runway and then if you take the second left and a right you come to the seaport." "You have a seaport?" asked Tom "isn't that a little slow compared to flying or the train?" Lena shrugged "it comes in handy, back in the day lots of omniums concealed themselves underwater, still do actually, so we used to have quite a fleet." The shadow of a sad look flitted across Lena's face before her customary grin reasserted itself. "The left takes you down to the Playground which is where all the toys and training equipment are kept." "Toys?" Asked Laura, beating Henry to it. "Oh you know, weapons, gear. Toys!" Lena continued, "that's where most of your training will take place." All four of the friends eyes lit up at the mention of training. "Straight ahead is the living quarters, so bedrooms, lounge, kitchen and so forth. Then finally on the right is the Research Labs. Its where Winston likes to make mess around and, y'know, invent stuff." "Did he make your accelerator thing?" asked Sophie. The large device was ever strapped round Lena's chest. "Mmm" she replied, "it took him quite a few tries as well. The quarters of the base are pretty much the same as you go up with the exception that the lower floors are the archive and cells and the top two floors are mostly offices." She pressed a button by the lift and it came gliding down from above. "Shall I show you to your rooms and then I can see introduce you to the chaps whenever they decide to appear."

They piled into the lift and went rushing up higher into the base. She showed them to a long corridor with doors down one side. The colour scheme was warmer up there than the regulation grey and blue of the lower floors. It felt more homely and comfortable. Lena gestured to the doors "pick a room and chuck your stuff in. Come along to the lounge and meet the chaps when you're ready. The rooms are all identical so I trust you can pick without fighting." She strolled down the corridor and turned left round the corner.

Sophie opened one of the doors. The whole of the opposite wall was a massive glass window that looked out over the British Territory of Gibraltar. To the left was the town and then directly below was a cove that was hidden from the town. Beyond that the blue waters of the Atlantic and Mediterranean sparkled in the sunlight. The room itself was spacious without being massive Against one wall there was a double bed with drawers in the bottom with a small table and lamp next to it. At the foot of the bed was a double wardrobe. Against the other was a desk, computer, large bookshelf and a door which presumably led to a bathroom and toilet. "Guessing this is mine then." she said and left the others to it.

She was halfway through sorting her books (sci-fi, fantasy and mystery mostly, with a light sprinkling of romance) onto the shelves when there was a tap at her door. Laura's slightly muffled voice cane from the other side "Soph? We're going along to the lounge, are you coming with?" "Erm yeah, hang on a sec." She looked around before plonking the pile down onto her bed. She stepped over her suitcase and opened the door where the others were waiting.

They all trooped down the hallway and turned left. At the end there was a set of misted glass doors. Roughly engraved on them were the words: "The Clubhouse. All welcome, anyone else by invitation only." From inside there came a loud, thick Scandinavian voice: "so I told him, for the last time. I'm Swedish!" There came a roar of laughter. Henry shrugged at the others and pushed open the door.

Seated round the table in the middle of the room was: Lena, Winston, a man who was wearing a Stetson, a hulking giant of a man who had a scar across one eye, a tall blond woman who looked vaguely familiar and finally a man who was about waist height and appeared to have a metal claw instead of a right hand. Lena beckoned to them, "heya, come and meet the gang!"

 **A.N. Training will commence next time... Assuming I get around to writing it which might be a while what with mock exams next week. Feel free to review :)** **Also if anyone has any ideas on what sort of gear the four protagonists should get then feel free to PM me. I think I have an idea for one but any other ideas are appreciated. You have roughly four to seven days .**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Henry woke to the sun peeking in through the blinds. He peered blearily at the clock on his bedside table: 6:30 in the morning. It would be no use trying to get another half hour of sleep. Once he was awake he couldn't get back to sleep again. He sat up, yawned loudly and stretched a bit before sliding out of bed. At the foot of his bed lay a pile of navy blue and black clothes. He remembered Winston talking yesterday: "if we're going to be training cadets again, we're doing it properly." He showered before getting dressed and going along to the clubhouse to get breakfast.

After about ten minutes Sophie came in, running her hands uncertainly over the arms of her uniform. "Mornin'. How was your sleep?" asked Henry between mouthfuls of cereal. "Alright," she yawned loudly as she put some bread in the toaster. "Did Winston say what we're doing today?" Henry shrugged, "I think he said we're starting in the Playground, he went to check to see if anyone else responded to Recall." The toaster broke the silence that followed by pinging insistently until Sophie took the toast out. She sat down next to Henry and watched the fishing boats as she ate.

The other two came in a few minutes later. They discussed what training would entail between mouthfuls. When everyone had finished they proceeded down to the training area. Inside the already sizable base a massive cavern had been hewn out of the rock. You could've easily fitted an average cargo ship inside assuming you were prepared to lean it over a bit. One whole wall was a bare rock face with climbing apparatus hanging from it. At the far end there was a row of punch bags and training dummies. Opposite the climbing wall in niches in the wall there was a set of target ranges.

As they looked around the cavern there was a whirring noise. In the centre of the cavern a hologram flickered into life in the centre of the room. A gently revolving blue 'A' appeared. From overhead there came a neutral, slightly synthetic female voice. "Welcome, cadets, to the Overwatch emergency cadet training program. I am Athena, an artificial intelligence created by the primate known as 'Winston'. Over the next twelve weeks I will be guiding you through the training program. Your training will include stealth and espionage, advanced weaponry, vehicle operation and maintenance, cyber defence and assault. battlefield tactics, calisthenics, and medical training. After the training program is completed you will attend regular sessions to maintain you physical condition."

"Now, let us begin. Please observe the space around you." There was a loud whirring. Suddenly sections of the floor began rising to form walls and corridors. Slabs slid out from he walls to form a ceiling. "This is a team-based exercise designed to test how well you can work as a team and solve problems and remove obstacles from your path. Before you lies a multi-layered maze. Please don your tactical visors." From out of the floor slid a column bearing four headsets with a glass visor. As Henry put one on the Overwatch logo was briefly superimposed over his sight before being replaced with a pulsing green marker on the left hand side above the horizon. Athena's voice sounded in his ear, "This is the field operations headset mark four. It can be used for a variety of functions but today it will serve as a map and to show your destination. As you progress through the maze a map will be built of the areas you have entered. The maze contains a variety of traps and puzzles that will require you to work together after in order to progress. In this exercise you will be assessed on your problem solving skills and ability to work together as a team. Good luck." The hologram winked out of existence and the column retracted into the floor.

They started, with not a little caution, into the maze. After several minutes and as many dead ends they came to a long corridor with no branches that ended in a staircase heading upwards. Sophie paused just before the entrance and frowned. "This doesn't feel right. I don't know what it is but I feel like this has a trap of some sort in it." The others had learnt to trust her intuition after several embarrassing defeats in bets and from watching her playing online video games. She was quite possibly the hardest sniper you could play against as she had a knack for predicting where you would try to approach from. More of that another time.

The others thought for a moment before Tom spoke, "we could throw something down. Maybe that would trigger it." "With what?" asked Laura. "Don't tell me you've already started filling all the pockets of your uniform with all sorts of, well, stuff."

There were indeed many pockets on their uniforms. Tom looked slightly abashed. "Not yet, I was actually thinking we could throw one of my shoes down there. As I have the biggest feet my shoes would be most likely to trigger any sort of trap." He unlaced one of his combat boots and lobbed it down the corridor.

The reaction was instant if somewhat underwhelming. Turrets popped out of the left wall wall and started firing at the boot as it sailed past. The underwhelming part was that they were firing rubber pellets rather than large calibre pulse rounds. As soon as the boot landed on the bottom step the turrets stopped firing and retracted into the wall.

Tom scratched his chin. "Are they supposed to be bullets?" he asked. Athena's voice sounded in their ears. "For the purpose of this exercise the pellets should be treated with the same caution as you would have with armour-piercing bullets." "So don't get hit?" asked Henry. "This is a correct approach" replied Athena in a completely neutral voice.

"How are we supposed to get past them then?" asked Laura with a touch of frustration in her voice. Sophie pointed to the bottom of the left side of the corridor. "Crawl along there. It should be in the turret's blind spot." "Are you sure?" asked Tom and Henry simultaneously. "No, maybe you two should go first to check" she replied. They both got down and started shuffling nervously along the corridor, sticking as close to the wall as possible. When they reached the end they crawled up a few steps to make sure they didn't trigger the turrets. "Looks good" shouted Henry. The two girls followed them down. When they reached the end they all proceeded up the staircase.

Over the course of the next few hours they ran the maze, gradually getting closer to the green marker. Each floor contained more traps and puzzles than the last. Several forced them to hunt through the areas of the maze they had been through already to find some clue or object that allowed them to pass.

On the fourth floor they finally became level with the green marker. They hit several dead ends before coming up against yet another puzzle. There was a door and a pedestal on which sat a Rubik's Cube. Henry groaned, "please don't tell me we have to solve that thing." Tom looked at him in mild surprise. "They're not that hard you know. It's all down to logic." He picked it up and started moving the sides around. Four minutes and fifty two seconds later he held a completed cube. "Do we go through now?" he asked. The door clunked then opened. Behind it was another dead end. Henry grunted, "well that was anticlimactic." They looked around the small space. "There's nothing in here" said Laura "maybe we missed something somewhere." The green marker still sat behind the dead end gently flashing every now and then in a smug manner. Sophie spoke from near the door. "There's something above the door. I can't see what it is." They all turned to see a small slot above the door. Tom looked at the Rubik's cube, "do you think that this would fit in there?"

The two girls waited outside to give the boys a little more space. Henry lifted Tom by the knees and tottered closer unsteadily. Tom reached out and just managed to slot it in before being unceremoniously dumped onto the floor. He was just about to start arguing with Henry when the dead end disappeared. They emerged back into the Playground on top of the maze. The green marker now disappeared and Athena's voice sounded in their ear. "Well done. You completed this exercise efficiently and in four hours and seventeen minutes. You now have until one o'clock until your training resumes for the afternoon. Lunch will be served in the clubhouse. Please keep your headsets, they form an essential part of any operatives equipment. For convenience they can worn in a condensed format." The visor collapsed into sections and folded away into the bit above their ears.

They strolled away and back to the Clubhouse where they found Angela (the tall blonde lady from last time) making lasagne. After a few minutes Winston lumbered in from doing whatever a gorilla does alone. This turned out to be trying to decode a fragmented signal being broadcast on the old ecopoint wavelength. "I'm still no closer to figuring out what it is. It's probably just a ghost in the machine." He continued munching loudly.

That afternoon Athena set them on a brutal regime of physical training to "optimise your physical potential." Needless to say that these left them with aches and pains in all sorts of interesting places. Over dinner that evening they were speculating about what missions they might get when Lena walked into the Clubhouse. Overhearing their conversation she went over to their table. "I remember my first mission," she said reminiscing. "Null Sector had taken over a place in London called King's Row. We were tasked with detonating an EMP in their base in the power station." Who was with you?" asked Tom. By now all of them were hooked on the tale. "Well, there was yours truly, Angela, Torbjorn and Reinhardt. It was certainly memorable." Angela laughed softly from the counter. "Memorable is one way of putting it when you're stuck in the middle of a warzone waiting for Torbjorn to get a hover-truck to start." A grumpy Scandinavian voice cane from somewhere: "that wasn't my fault, how was I supposed to know the ruddy thing had a broken driveshaft?" They all looked around trying to find the source of the voice. Angela sighed. "At least come out where we can all see you." From around the side of the counter there came an extremely short man with oil smeared on his face. "Tap should be all fixed Angela but back to the important matter. The hover-truck wasn't my fault." "Poor Torbjorn." Teased Lena, "knows how to make a turret out of a dishwasher but can't actually fix his neighbour's van." "Go pick on someone your own size" he grumbled as he started attacking his dinner as though he had a personal grudge against it.

From the doorway there came a loud, thick German voice. "Ah my friend, height is nothing to be ashamed of. Maybe you will surprise us one of these days." Angela and Lena both smothered silent fits of laughter as Reinhardt clapped Torbjorn on the back hard enough to cause a minor earthquake.

 **A.N. Finally got this finished, sorry for the longer wait. I won't be covering all the training in detail as that would take many chapters and doubtless lots of it would be very boring. I might do a selection of highlights at some point. Please review and enjoy.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A.N. For anyone who wonders why this bit is first person not third person it's mainly because I felt like it was better for this bit. Also sorry it's so late**.

Chapter Seven

The four of us walked into the playground to see Winston waiting. "OK, this is your final test to see if all that training has paid off. You will be put in a recreation of the King's Row incident. You will need to take out the Omnic air defences, escort the EMP to the power station and detonate it to take out Null Sector and shut down the reactor core so it doesn't blow a hole in the middle of London. Any questions?" Henry raised a hand: "what about the civilian omnics who are being held hostage." A dark look flashed quickly across Winston's face before disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. "Don't worry about it, you'll understand as the mission pans out." He shook himself slightly before continuing. "Best be starting quickly. If you go to the changing rooms you'll find the sim suits. Put those on and come back and we'll start." The sim suits, or as we liked to call them, agonisers, were used for simulated scenarios to replicate all the smells, sights and sounds you might encounter. The boys went into the other changing room while me and Laura went into the other. The suits were slightly bulkier than the normal uniforms because of all the tech squeezed into them.

When we had finally squeezed into them we went back into the Playground. Winston was now seated in the control booth up in the top of the cavern. "Here we go, starting program." There was a loud hum while the hologram projectors sorted out their feelings then we were dropped straight into the middle of a London Underground train. (Elizabeth Line)

Winston's voice appeared in my ear. "Somebody poke Tom, the signal from his suit is patchy." Without a second of hesitation Laura pulled out her assault rifle and shot him in the back. He collapsed onto the seats letting out a torrent of unprintable obscenities. "Seems to be working okay." said Laura, completely deadpan. "Would you like me to reset your suit Tom or are you fine to continue?" asked Winston. "A reset, would be great." Tom snarled through gritted teeth. The holes in his back instantly disappeared and he got back to his feet a little unsteadily.

The train rumbled through the tunnels until it ground to a halt on King's Row Underground Station. It looked pretty normal apart from the lack of passengers. This changed when we got to the entrance. The ticket barriers were smashed and hanging limply. We stopped at the entrance. I poked my head out the door to check for sentries. The streets were deserted and there was no sound except for the hooting of a few pigeons.

The skyline looked normal until you realised that the black towers leaning with the breeze were actually pillars of smoke. We went cautiously through the streets until the first anti-aircraft gun came in sight. We went towards the first gun cautiously. The streets were completely deserted with only the barking of a dog somewhere to disturb the silence. We rounded the corner to see the massive battery of barrels perched on top of a plinth where a statue of some Omnic bloke once stood.

Winston's voice reappeared in our ears. "The Omnics who installed the gun wanted to make sure that the guns couldn't be remotely hacked. The only way to hack them is from the terminals at the base." Laura pulled out a small PDA with a spiked cable which she plunged into the terminal. She frantically began typing. A few minutes went by before Tom broke the silence. "Have you done it? Are you close?" "I'm trying" she replied "it's less slipping a dagger in the cracks but more smashing the thing with a hammer." A few minutes later she pulled the cable out and tried to mop her brow before remembering that we were wearing full face visors. "We better go, theres no way that hack went unseen."

We got to the second battery unseen. Laura began typing but was interrupted by Henry on the comms. "Laura you need to hurry up, I've seen a few Null Sector scouts roving about a few streets away and they're getting closer." Laura didn't reply but the speed of her typing sped up a bit. After a few minutes she unplugged the device and we went towards the last battery.

The last battery was mounted on top of a hotel in the middle of the King's Row area. To get to said battery we either had to go through the hotel and onto the roof via the service hatch or we could try and climb up the outside. We eventually went with the outside as the hotel was filled with a group of Omnics. Tom fired a grappling hook up to the roof where it lodged with an unnecessary clang. He gave the rope a tug. "Do you think it will hold us?" "I think so" replied Laura, "but perhaps you should go first to check."

We pulled ourselves hand over hand which for the record, is a lot harder than it looks. At the top we were rewarded with another gun to hack and a nice view of the devastation.

Laura set to work on the gun while we kept watch. From the streets the sounds of Omnics grew closer and closer. "Laura?" called Henry from the far side of the roof. "You really need to hurry that hack up, I can see a Null Sector patrol coming closer." "I know", she replied "but I think somebody noticed what we did to the other guns. They're trying to fight back against me. Almost there.." She frantically typed out a few more lines of code before ripping the cable out of the interface. "Done!"

"Great" said Winston in our ears. "Now if can you get to the square down below, the payload will be with you shortly." We abseiled down to the square. As we got to the bottom of the wall, two things happened: the good thing was that a plane roared overhead and a red pickup-truck sailed down from above to rest in the square with a crash as it touched down. The really bad thing was that a klaxon started wailing in a very loud and annoying way. I groaned, "now every Omnic for half a mile knows we're here. We need to get this thing moving." "I can drive if you lot keep watch." volunteered Tom. "No," replied Henry, "after what happened in the training simulation you aren't driving any vehicle near me." Tom looked sheepish, "they just happened to be in the way." "You managed to destroy an office block with a Ford Fiesta. I'll drive." I replied, getting into the cab before anyone could argue.The others clambered into the back with the bomb.

On the windscreen a HUD flickered into life. On the streets in front there was a red line marking the way to the power station. The engine gave a low rattle before wheezing into life and propelling us through the dark streets. We were almost there when Winston's voice reappeared in my ear. "Slow down a second. Do you see the crossroads coming up?" "Yeah" I replied. "Two narrow streets, no way to see down them without sticking your head out. Nice spot for an ambush." "It would seem our Omnic friends thought so too. They've set up a welcoming committee in both streets. The Power Station is two hundred metres down the road around the corner but you'll have to go past them to get to it." I thumped the wheel in frustration. "If we drive past quick enough can the other three make enough mess to stop them catching up?" I asked. The came a long "hmmmmmmmm". "Well we'll soon find out" he said. Less than reassuring.

I opened the Comms channel in the HUD of my visor. "Guys, get ready to start shooting. As soon as we go through these crossroads we're going to have a very angry tail." A trio of various confirmations came back. I floored the accelerator before my common sense got the better of me. The crossroads sailed by and I got the very entertaining view of a group of Bastion units looking as surprised as they could. There was a beautiful pause of roughly two seconds before a wall of bullets erupted from both streets. This was promptly followed by a wave of Omnics pouring onto the street.

From the rear of the truck I could hear the others firing back at the Onnics and in the rearview mirror I could see a few units flopping to the ground. "Guys, you really need to get rid of them if we're going to get inside the power station." "I have a couple of grenades." replied Tom. He pulled one off of his belt, pulled the pin out and began counting. Without throwing it away. "TOM? ARE YOU INSANE?" Laura yelled at him. He didn't reply but just kept counting. When he reached seven he lobbed the grenades into the middle of the pursuing group. The bastions around where it landed immediately tried to back up but were shunted forward by those behind them who hadn't registered the grenade. The was a bass thump then a small fireball erupted from the street, blowing up most of the Onnics and sufficiently confusing the rest for us to disappear round the corner.

Laura gave Tom a hard slap on the face. This was largely ineffective due to the full-face visor but it got the point across. "Next time you do something like that at least give us a little warning you moron." He shrugged. "It worked didn't it?" Laura looked as though she might argue the point further but Henry cut it before she could reply. "Where are we putting this bomb? And how are we supposed to get it inside without being seen?"

The voice of our magical simian guardian reappeared: "the bomb is mounted on a hover trolley, there's a control around the back so you don't need to push. Do you see the side door next to the main loading bay?" The door obligingly swung open. "That's the easiest way in and the quickest way to the maintenance deck above the core. Follow the red line as per usual."

Before we went in Henry organised us. "Sophie, you and I are going to go ten metres ahead to prevent anyone ambushing the bomb." Then we went in. The myriad of corridors meant many wonderful ambush points however Null Sector didn't seem to know we were there. We did keep finding roving patrols which were usually a pair of less than friendly bastion units. Thankfully after three weeks of Athena's intensive weapons training we were all extremely quick on the draw so we managed to destroy most of them and paralyse the rest. As we got closer to the core the temperature got colder and colder, so cold that our breath started clouding in front of us. "Why is it so cold?" asked Laura. We could hear her teeth chattering into her microphone. "It's the coolant system" replied Winston. "It flows throughout the whole building to ensure no part of the building become hot enough to interfere with the fusion reactor." Laura was probably about to reply with one of her arsenal of sarcastic replies but suddenly we turned a corner and the corridor dropped away.

We were standing on a metal gantry above a massive pit. Far below we could make out a massive tangle of pipes and vents wreathed in a crown of steam. "What do we do now?" asked Henry. "Leave the bomb here" replied Winston. "I can remotely trigger it once you're out the building, which, if you wouldn't mind is where you need to be as soon as possible. We turned to go back down the corridor but in the doorway stood a bastion unit.

It issued a loud klaxon noise then tried raised the gun arm to fire. I pulled my assault rifle out of my shoulder holster and shot it before it could start shooting. "Well that's torn it" said Tom. "Now they know we're here." "We should probably leave." said Henry. We all started running through the corridors towards the exit. From behind there came the clatter of Omnics as they gave chase. We rounded another corner to see the door hanging open. We burst out into the night as a hail of bullets was unleashed from inside. Laura cried out and tumbled to the ground as a round slammed into her leg. "Winston?" I shouted as the boys dragged Laura out off the line of fire. "Now would be a really good time to set the bomb off." He didn't reply but from inside there was a loud whine that climbed in pitch until it went ultrasonic then a deep bass thump as the EMP detobated. The firing and clattering stopped and an OR-15 unit flopped out of the doorway, scattering Omnic components across the pavement.

"Well done," said Winston. "Now just get back to the jet quickly before the emergency services arrive and you can be off." We ran through the streets with Laura supported between me and Tom until we reached the square. Sitting with its engines idling was a midnight blue jump-jet. We carried Laura up the ramp and got the briefest view of the interior before the hologram projectors deactivated and the images faded.

The sim-suits deactivated and Laura stopped holding her leg so we dumped her unceremoniously onto the floor of the Playground. Winston voicw came throuh the speakers. "Well I don't think anyone disagrees, you've passed in excellent time." I looked up too see everyone in the control booth with Winston. Thankfully they all looked quite happy, barring Torbjorn who was so short we could only see his eyes over the lip of the booth's windows. For those who haven't been in that kind of situation it really was quite unnerving to know they had all been watching. "Now come on up to the Clubhouse and have some dinner before the written exam." Said Winston as the others filed out of the control booth. "What written exam?" asked Laura, a look of priceless amazement on her face. We looked up to see Lena thumping Winston on the shoulder.

 **A.N. Sorry again it was so late, exams are coming up and I had a spot of mental block (not uncommon) but hopefully I should be able to keep on track once mock exams are out the way next week.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A.N. 8 chapters! For the record I have no idea how many chapters this will stretch to.** **I also want to apologise again in advance as this may not be** **out for a few weeks while I have exams.**

Chapter Eight

 _Reykjavik Secure Energy Research Plant. Two months after the last chapter..._

Sirens of all sorts blared throughout the facility, making sure everyone knew that an unspecified emergency was in progress. In the control centre scientists and technicians were frantically trying to quash a virus that was running rampant through their systems, stealing data on the projects, the employees and generally being annoying in every sense of the word.

Standing in the middle of the control room was the woman responsible. She wore a very self-satisfied grin as she typed at the keyboard on her arn, causing yet another problem to manifest itself in the computer systems. I should probably point out that she was rendering herself invisible which is why nobody had tried to apprehend her. Or at the very least ask what she was doing in what was possibly the most secure building in Iceland.

She probably would have stayed to enjoy her handiwork had not a voice like gravel appeared in her ear: "Sombra, are we in?" She sighed, "of course, this security system is like a fence made of feathers." Outside the main doors a figure in a long black coat was crouched behind a rock wishing he had bought another coat. "Then open the doors and get on with the mission." Sombra sighed, "you worry too much Reaper." She tapped at her keyboard and sent a little problem into the Plant's systems. It can only be seen as a little problem in relation to the next problem.

The main doors creaked open slightly and a cloud of black smoke slid through the gap and coalesced into the man known as Reaper. He surveyed the suitably shocked group of soldiers and scientists who were on the point of boarding the hover-vehicles in the hanger. Then Sombra killed the lights. The hangar was quickly filled with confused shouts that turned to screams as Reaper started moving through the crowd gunning down anyone and everyone in the room.

After half a minute there was an eerie silence. The lights flickered on and revealed heaps of bodies scattered around the room. "Was that stunt with the lights really necessary?" He asked with a slight hint of irritation. "No not really, but hey, what do I care if you shoot yourself in the foot." Came the lazy reply. Sombra was sitting in the main chair of the control centre, swiveling idly as she scanned the banks of screens.

"Have you found the target yet?" He growled. "We need to go before the military gets here." She sighed, "I find your lack of faith disturbing sometimes. You wait up there and make sure no one gets any ideas." She strolled out of the room and started following the red line that was superimposed over her vision whilst Reaper fumed by the main entrance. She came to a lift which stubbornly refused to go down until she hacked it with a series of contemptuous hand gestures. "Government computer contractors" she tutted to herself as it grudgingly descended.

The lift doors slid open smoothly to reveal an empty silver box, which was really very confusing for the pair of soldiers who had fled down there and were dutifully protecting group of scientists who had taken refuge in the research laboratory. It was even more confusing when they were both knocked unconscious by an invisible fist.

Sombra flickered into visibility and stepped lightly over the two soldiers before making her way down the corridor. It was more like a prison than an advanced laboratory, bare concrete and wires with solid metal doors every so often. She followed the meandering corridor until the red line abruptly veered into the wall. She went back to the last door and kicked it viciously until the hinges finally gave out. A broom cupboard. She sighed while mentally thanking the disbarred surgeon who hahad given her the many implants all those years ago. She tried the next door and struck metaphorical gold.

It was a fairly large laboratory, all of it in the standard laboratory white. Around the edge of the room abandoned projects sat in various states of completion, including what looked suspiciously like a laser rifle of some sort. As Sombra passed one of the hard drives she pulled a small USB port out of her pocket and stuck it in the computer. It started sucking up all the research centre's data and transmitting it back to her brain. Now, back to what she was supposed to be doing. She looked around the laboratory, the red line had gone straight through the wall, and a couple of workbenches before stopping outside a door labelled 'Cleaning Supplies'. She knelt down and picked the lock rather than kick it down.

Inside the cupboard were half a dozen scientists who were cowering in the back corner, apart from three who were sitting on the floor playing what looked like poker. "Doctor Ericsdöttir?" Sombra asked in a friendly tone which really didn't suit the reason she was asking. One of the poker playing scientists got up and brushed herself down before looking angrily up at her. Aside from the whole invading-my-lab thing Dr. Ericsdöttir had been on the point of winning the game of poker. They had been betting over the rights to the nicest chair in the lab. "Sombra, do you have the target?" asked Reaper. "We don't have all day." She rolled her eyes. "Doctor Ericsdöttir, you'll be coming with me. We need your particular knowledge." "And what if I refuse?" asked the short but very defiant doctor. Sombra pulled out her submachine gun. "Let me put it another way, you come with me or I'll start shooting. And if by the time no one is left you still don't want to come then I'll hack your brain and force you to come. But it's your choice. Amiga."

The diminutive doctor gave it a seconds thought before giving a small nod. "Good!" Exclaimed Sombra with an excess of enthusiasm.

She steered the doctor out of the cupboard and back through the laboratory. She snagged the device from the hard drive on the way past. Nothing like a few petabytes of stolen data to sell on the black market. The doctor remained silent which made the journey in the lift extremely awkward; if it was possible to get any more awkward at this point. Sombra distracted herself by scrolling through the stolen data. It was quite interesting data for a lab working on energy production methods, especially the blueprints that looked suspiciously like a laser cannon. She wasn't sure as the documents were in Icelandic.

Finally the lift doors slid open to reveal a very grumpy cloud of smoke. "What's been taking so long?" growled Reaper from inside the cloud. Sombra sighed; "calm down. I've been down there for what? Twenty minutes at most. Are the visual effects really necessary?" The cloud dissipated to reveal the cloak and skull mask. "Just get to the ship." He growled. "It's waiting outside. I'll be there soon." He stalked away into the maze of corridors. "And he lectures me about taking too long." Sombra muttered to herself as she dragged the scientist towards the hangar.

As they came round the bend towards the door of the hangar they became aware of a wholly unpleasant stench that was crawling up their nose. Inside the hangar they found the carnage left behind by Reaper. "Is this what you do?" asked the scientist accusingly. Sombra didn't answer, she just dragged her past and out through the doors before she could vomit. She was a hacker, not a psychopath. That was Reaper's job.

Outside on the frozen tundra there sat a black dropship, engines idling with the cargo bay doors open. Sombra tied the scientist to a seat before going to the cockpit. The pilot was sitting playing Hearthstone on one of the screens. He paused the game as she came in and tried to look busy doing vague and important looking tasks. "I was just umm" he began. Sombra grinned slightly; "it's fine, I'm not like his darkness. Just make sure you're ready to get out of here when he materialises." The pilot relaxed into his seat as she went back into the cargo bay.

She flopped down into a seat and scrolled idly through Reddit while trying to ignore the really very intimidating glares coming from the scientist opposite. Eventually the doctor broke the silence. "Why do you work for them?" Sombra only half heard, some moron had decuded to try and hack her Reddit account. "Hmm?" "Why do you work for them?" Repeated the doctor. Sombra shrugged, "Talon has resources. I can use those for little side projects now and then." Ericsdöttir frowned. There was something Sombra wasn't telling her but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

There was another long silence. Suddenly there was a hammering on the side door of the aircraft. The door slid open and Reaper stalked in. "Get us out of here" he snapped into the intercom. "Where have you been?" Asked Sombra, a little irritably. "That's need to know information. You don't."

The aircraft's engines worked themselves up into a roar before hurling the ship into the sky, leaving chaos and mayhem in it's wake.


	9. Chapter 9

**A.N.** **Exam season is coming up soon. The schedule has gone down the drain. The uploads will come as regularly as I can manage.**

Chapter 9

One of the features of Watchpoint: Gibraltar is the alarm system. It can be programmed to communicate one, a number, or all of the active operatives stationed in the base. It also can be used to wake them up if the emergency is nocturnal on nature. Our four protagonists had the intense displeasure of discovering the marvels of this system at three in the morning.

Sophie was jolted, rather violently, out of sleep by a wailing noise akin to a WWII air raid siren next to her ear. She sat bolt upright, slumped back down again as the blood vacated her head, then pulled herself back up and looked back around. The lights in her room had started pulsing a dull red and her computer screen was bearing a short, yet loaded message: 'Crisis ongoing, report to Command Centre immediately.'

She got dressed into her uniform and jogged towards the stairs. After three rotations (spiral staircases don't tend to have flights) she heard Laura's voice echo up the stairwell. "Which arse feels the need to interrupt my sleep?" "Apparently they have no sense if they're waking you up." Tom's voice floated up from the bottom of the stairs. Five floors later they emerged into the middle of the command centre. The stairs quite literally came up in the middle of the room as it occupied the entire interior of the peak of Gibraltar.

When Overwatch was fully functional the room would've been packed but, for the moment, only Lena, Winston and Henry were there. Henry having sprinted up all eight floors. They were examining a satellite image showing a live feed. "Ah there you are," said Winston. "Come and have a look at this. This is an aerial view of a research lab in Iceland. An hour ago they reported multiple issues to do with pretty much anything connected to their internet. The source was an extremely intelligent virus that reappeared in another part of their systems every time it was quarantined. Then half an hour ago they were attacked by Talon. The black blob outside the main entrance is, what we presume to be, the getaway ship." Tom yawned at length, "can't you hack their CCTV? It would be helpful if we could see what's going on inside." "I did try" replied Winston. "But look at the computer over there." He gestured to one of the desks by the wall. On it there was a hard drive that was smoking gently. The monitor that had been connected was displaying a purple skull that flickered occasionally. "That is the mark of a group of hackers known as the Sombra Collective. Clearly they've been enlisted by Talon. I've had to isolate that computer so that the virus doesn't kill everything in the base. I think it'll be wor-"

He broke off suddenly. On the satellite feed two figures had appeared out of the main doors. All they could make out was that one of them was dragging the other towards the aircraft waiting on the frozen tundra. They disappeared inside the craft which continued to idle on the ice. "Why haven't they left yet?" asked Lena. "Athena can you enhance that at all?" The familiar synthetic voice wafted out of the ceiling. "Attempting visual clarification." The computer ticked for a minute before the resolution sharpened. While the two people were still unidentifiable they could see one was dressed in a purple coat with headgear while the other was wearing a white jacket or lab coat and had ginger hair.

"Hmm" droned Winston as the live feed resumed. "Well I'll run that through the facial recognition database but it probably won't turn anything up." "Why do they want a research scientist?" asked Henry. "If it was a military lab I could understand." "The Icelandic government is very hush over what that lab is actually for." Replied Winston. "It is officially an energy research lab and it certainly does do that. It's had a hand in developing new geothermal tech. However the number of staff is remarkably large for a lab that is the size of a large secondary school and supposedly doesn't extend below ground. The last time any foreign observer was allowed in was before the first Omnic Crisis."

On screen the aircraft powered up its engines and silently flew off in a cloud of swirling snow. They all went back to bed except for Winston who set about getting hold of 'contacts' to see if he could get any information on who had been taken from the laboratory.

While they were having breakfast the next morning Winston ambled into the Clubhouse looking shattered in his gorilla way. "I've found out who our mystery scientist is." He yawned loudly, baring his tombstone teeth. "Even if it did take all night. She's a former Overwatch scientist actually, Dr. Naomi Ericsdöttir, Icelandic national but her parents were from New Zealand and Scotland. She worked with us for about seven years before she was offered a post at this Laboratory in Iceland. She was helping develop a form of drug that could be administered to an injured soldier in the field to reduce their pain and make them more resilient to other injuries. It also boosted the bodies stamina and their strength. It was discontinued as it tended to make the body quite literally burn out." "Did you find where she was taken?" asked Henry, always the one to stay on track, he was determined to be as good as, if not better than his parents had been when they were operatives.

"Regrettably not," replied Winston. "As soon as the aircraft cleared the perimeter fence it dropped into stealth mode and disappeared off every sensor. However my contact in the MI6 was able to tell me that the Sombra Collective has been extremely active against Lumerico. The companies power plants have been under repeated cyber-attack for just shy of two years now. As this is our only lead on anything Talon related I want you four to head out to Mexico and try and find anything or anyone who can help this investigation, so to speak." The four of them looked excitedly at each other at the prospect of their first mission.

Winston continued what was now turning into a defacto briefing. "I assume you all learnt to fly during your training." Laura interrupted, "Tom is barred from flying anything I am on or near until he works out how to land without causing a minor extinction event." She said Sophie and Henry tried not to laugh. Winston raised a furry eyebrow: "hmmmm perhaps I ought to schedule you for some extra lessons when you get back. Anyhow, I will activate the safe house in Mexico, a place called Castillo. Once you land try and, you know, get to know the place. The locals aren't fans of Lumerico so I wouldn't be surprised if the Sombra Collective is relatively open. Any questions?" "Yes" said Tom. "You have a mole in MI6?" "Well not a mole as such, but cyber security that bad is asking to be hacked." They burst out laughing while Winston looked uncomfortable.

After around an hour of boring things like packing bags and getting equipment from the Playground the four of them were walking in to the hangar, followed by a small mountain of bags and cases on a hover trolley. Winston was tinkering with a serious-looking jet, his head and shoulders inserted onto a hatch in the side, Lena watching on and making sure he didn't break anything. As they approached he extracted himself from the bowels of the plane. "Ah hello there, I was just making sure everything was still working. This plane has been in storage for years." He began rattling on about all the problems he'd found until Lena cut him off. "You'll be fine, I learned to fly in one of these. The Cyclone is one of the best planes ever made. This one might be a little sluggish but twenty minutes in the air and you'll be fine."

They climbed onboard while Winston stuffed the wires back onside the hatch. Lena's voice came chirping through the comms as Laura sat down in the cockpit and started up the plane. "Ok you are cleared for take-off. Oh this takes me back, right then. Mostly clear skies all the way, avoid any major population centres, oh, and if you do go near one kindly keep it subsonic so we don't shatter any windows."

The massive blast doors rumbled open, revealing a sliver of light that steadily expanded. Laura rolled the jet forward until it was on the launchpad and facing the Atlantic Ocean. "Remember this is a vertical take off but it will be on a runway on Mexico" said Lena. "Oh and please don't hit the afterburners until you're out over the sea. Activating them here will shatter the control room windows." Inside the control room Lena and Winston both leant back from the windows as they heard the engines turning up to full speed. Laura pulled back the joysticks and teased the jet off the ground. It floated clear of the launchpad and out of the cavern into bright sunlight. It paused for a second before the was a bass thump as the ramjets activated and the jet shot away towards the horizon, chased by the rising sun.

Up in the control room Lena and Winston watched the jet until it dipped over the horizon. "Do you think they'll be alright?" asked Winston while he nervously fiddled with a small shield generator. Lena looked at the horizon for long time before answering. "They'll be fine, they're too sensible to get into trouble. Besides, it can hardly go as badly as it did when I was flying." She chuckled ruefully at the memory of her final flight as a pilot in Overwatch's experimental program. She was jolted back to the real world by loud bang, she looked round to see the shield generator smoking gently, occasionally letting out a few sparks. Winston was lying on the floor his glasses askew. He groaned, "build a shield generator they said. It'll be fun they said." Lena laughed, "It'll work eventually big guy." "Eventually can't come quick enough" retorted Winston.

 **A.N.** **I probably should've mentioned earlier that I write on my phone. Sorry about the bad formatting that comes from this.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A.N.** **Revision, so much revision...**

Chapter Ten

Flying a jet is one of those things that sounds very interesting and exciting. It's actually very dull. An hour into the flight and Laura had become tired of Athena criticising her flying skills, turned on the autopilot and gone down into the cargo bay where Tom was setting up another board game. Actually board game was a bit of a stretch as no one had used an actual board for decades. Now it was just a hologram projected onto a table. In this case there was a map of a world projected onto an empty crate. Unfortunately, being a military plane there was little in the way of comfort so they were all sitting on boxes, apart from Sophie who had found a battered stool in the corner. It was nicer to sit on but had the habit of swaying alarmingly if the plane rocked in turbulence.

I would explain the rules of the game but they are numerous and complicated. Suffice to say it was a bit like a cross between Sid Meier's civilization and Warhammer. Objectives including taking objectives, gathering resources, building certain units or building certain pieces of infrastructure. Once you completed every objective you won. Unless of course you used the age old method of destroying your opponent entirely which automatically won you the game. Games often lasted several hours, especially with more than two players.

They had entered the fifth hour and Henry and Laura were in control of most of them map. Tom was confined to a single port city, surrounded by Laura, and Sophie was spread across the numerous islands in the oceans on the map. Henry and Laura were squaring up to each other, engaged in an arms race to try and make as many troops as possible before they were forced to engage each other. Tom simply cowered in his city hoping his last battleship would make it back before he was annihilated. Sophie was hoping no one noticed her suspiciously large pile of troop, transport and infrastructure cards.

Soon Laura and Henry were locked into a massive battle. Each of them pounding each other mercilessly an a long battle of attrition. They were both so focused on planning each turn that they didn't notice Sophie building troops as fast as possible. The first notice they got was when she wiped Tom off the map by taking his city and the the surrounding area. Laura was now stuck between a rock and a hard place. She frantically tried to pull her troops back to defend her capital but Sophie was mercilessly carving two paths through her territory. Within two turns Sophie's army was knocking on the city gates. The next turn the army had swarmed into and captured the city through the actions of a dozen spies placed into the city at the start of the game.

As soon as Laura's capital went down she lost control of all territory connected to the capital, that is to say, all of her territory. She was now stranded between a slightly larger force and a massive force far outnumbering her own. Suffice to say she was eliminated within three turns. Sophie then mercilessly pounded Henry into oblivion. It wasn't one of those long and tactical battles that the game allows for, Sophie had three times as many troops and a virtual plague of aircraft.

"How did you get so many cards?" Asked Laura in amazement. "Oh you know," said Sophie airily. "I didn't use any up to that point. Anyway it was Tom's idea to have an unlimited number of cards." Tom opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by the aircraft's in-built Athena. "We are now making our final descent into Mexican airspace. Please resume manual control for the duration of the termination of your transit and disembarkation." "I think that means you need to land Laura." Said Tom gesturing towards the ladder up to the cockpit. Laurs rolled her eyes and scrambled up the ladder.

The plane broke through the layer of clouds and the Mexican countryside was laid out before Laura. Lush, dense jungle ran up to the Pacific coast which was broken every few miles by a small town clinging to the coastline. Only one of these was of much significance, the small town of Castillo. It was much the same as any of the other towns except it cowered in the shadow of a massive pyramid that illuminated the whole town and surrounding jungle. The small problem was that there was no visible place to land and getting splattered across a rainforest canopy wasn't high on Laura's to-do list. "Athena?" She asked. "Where am I landing this thing?" "You will be landing at the nearest inconspicuous runway. Deactivating visual cloaking device."

Laura barely had time to say "what?" before a rectangle of forest disappeared to reveal a dusty runway that didn't look much better than the trees. "Can't I land vertically?" asked Laura. "Negative, the surface of the runway is not strong enough to sustain the force of the downwards jets. The surface would be blasted against the hull of the aircraft, significantly reducing this aircraft's structural integrity."

Laura groaned and did up her seatbelt. She bought the plane as close to the trees as she dared and started inching down to the runway. The ground was even bumpier than it looked and as soon as they hit the ground the plane started rattling like a tin can. They ploughed to a halt in a cloud of dust, accompanied by the glorious smell of burning rubber tires. Laura opened the bay doors then slid down the ladder. The others were waiting, looking very disheveled from the landing.

"Did you enjoy your flight?" Asked Laura with an evil grin. "Two stars. Would not fly again" replied Tom. "Landing felt like an earthquake." "You're one to talk" shot back Laura. "You have a habit of landing on anything but the runway." Tom opened his mouth to argue, then decided better of it and closed it again. They hauled the various boxes onto a hover trolley and began down the small track from the runway towards the safehouse.

After a few minutes of trudging they rounded a corner to see a house built in to the hillside. It looked to be a normal holiday bungalow. It sat hunched on the hillside, overlooking the town and bay below. Nobody would've thought it was anything special unless they happened to come across the satellite mast disguised as a tree in the backyard. It wasn't like in the films where there is an ultra secret room full of computers and whatnot. There was no underground garage, just an ancient Jeep parked in lean-to next to the house. To all intents and purposes it was a normal bungalow, with a very fast WiFi connection and some unconventional anti-intrusion measures.

They dumped their stuff in the hallway of the house and then reconvened in the kitchen. "So" said Henry. "What are we here to do?" "Quoting his gorillaness, we are here to find the Sombra Collective and gain intelligence in relation to their ambitions." Replied Tom with the minutest of eye rolls. Henry seemed to be morphing into a miniature army sergeant. "That's very open-ended if you ask me. We don't even know if they're actually here. They could be a troll group in Siberia." Said Laura, fiddling with a strand of her hair. "Troll groups in Siberia rarely break through one of the most secure encryptions in Europe," replied Henry drily. "Anyway if we don't find anything within 3 weeks we're under orders to fly back to Gibraltar." They continued debating for a few minutes before starting to unpack the small piles cases in the hallway.

Laura was halfway through unpacking her case when Sophie stuck her head round the door. "Henry suggested we have a look around the town. Are you coming?" She asked. "Yeah," replied Laura "just give me a few minutes." She emerged a few moments later to find Sophie waiting in the corridor. Sophie was running her hands uncertainly over her clothes. Laura laughed, "you had the sane expression on when you first put the uniform on." "It feels stranger now than then." She replied As they were walking past the lounge they saw Tom poking around behind the TV. "What are you doing?" Asked Laura. "Getting the Nintendo to work." Came the muffled reply. Sophie and Laura walked his unpacked case languishing in the corridor and out into the front garden.

After walking through the forest they came to the first houses on the outskirts of the town. Most of them were bungalows, set back from the road and surrounded by yards. It was hot, but not unbearably so. After a few minutes they came to a small plaza at the edge of the cliffs. There was a low wall along the cliff top and the square was lined with small shops and a couple of restaurants. All but one of them shut.

"Where is everyone?" Asked Laura quietly, afraid to break the dead silence. "Are they on siesta? Is that a thing in Mexico or is it just Spain that does that?" Sophie shrugged, she was more concerned about getting a drink. The sun was getting hotter by the minute. They went into the only open shop, to find it completely unattended. There was a small bell on the counter, with a notice written in Spanish lying beside it. "What does it say?" asked Laura, nudging Sophie. "Ring for service, I think. Maybe the owner is out and forgot to lock up?" "Maybe," replied Laura, "but I'm thirsty."

She tapped the bell. From above there came a thump and the sound of a door opening. A man appeared from the back of the shop, rubbing his eyes and muttering something under his breath. As Sophie addressed him in Spanish he looked a bit happier. He got to Cokes out of the chiller cabinet behind him and slid them across the counter. She pulled some money but the man shook his head and said one last thing in Spanish before trudging back towards the back of the shop.

"Why didn't he want paying?" Asked Laura as they walked out into the sunshine. Sophie laughed "Oh, he said that because I made the effort to speak Spanish and it was our first time he'd give the drinks for free. He also said if we broke his siesta again he'd charge us extra." "Don't people usually try to speak Spanish?" asked Laura, "at least bring a dictionary?" "Apparently not," replied Sophie, "he said we were better than the Americans he sometimes gets. They often just shout louder when he doesn't speak English." They both dissolved into laughter until their mirth was interrupted by a buzzing from Laura's wrist.

"It's Commander Henry" said Laura, as she tapped the accept button on her watch. "Hello General, how can us lowlife corporals be of service today?" "Very funny," Henry's voice came twanging through the tiny speaker. how quickly can you get back up here? We need to discuss a rota for night duty." "Night duty?" asked both the girls. "Of course," replied Henry. "I do hope you weren't thinking we were going to be working a 9 to 5 shift with a lunch break." And with that, he hung up. "Five quid says he has a grin that looks like a cat that's learnt how to use a tin opener." "I'm not taking that bet." Replied Sophie as they began the steep climb back to the house.

 **A.N. Sorry about the delay. Exams are taking over my life at the moment.**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Sitting in a camouflaged observation pod is not pleasant at the best of times. Throw mild claustrophobia and 30C heat into the equation and it becomes very uncomfortable. Needless to say Henry and Laura would probably have used different phrases to describe their situation, but they would have to be censored.

They were, as you might have guessed, stuffed into a small, invisible pod that was suspended above an alley just off Castillo's main plaza. They had had the displeasure of being in this situation every other night for the past fortnight. These stakeouts in various locations in and around the outskirts of Castillo had failed to yield any intelligence related to the Sombra Collective. The only occurrences of note had been Tom somehow managing to blow up their dinner for the second night when he had attempted to cook it. Tom was now banned from operating ovens on Laura's vicinity, as well as aeroplanes.

Henry and Laura were squashed into the pod, wearily scanning banks of screens that were linked to cameras around town. Some were CCTV cameras already in place and had simply been hacked into however most of them had been discretely placed during the town's daily siesta. For about 3 hours after lunchtime it became as quiet as the grave, an ideal time to carry out activities that may or may not be entirely above board.

It was drawing towards the evening and Laura and Henry had just started an arduous 12 hour watch from 6pm to 6am the following morning. The stakeouts were irritating but they were the only option available. Through eavesdropping in various conversations in and around the local bars they had found that the locals saw the main problem as a gang called Los Muertos.

A mention of "Sombra" to the local shopkeeper had prompted a blank look, the same had been true of all the locals. This had all but confirmed the fact that none of the locals knew about the Sombra Collective, however everybody knew about Los Muertos. They effectively ruled the streets at night, the local police were outnumbered 2-to-1. The mothers in Castillo told their children to behave otherwise they would be taken in the night.

Their watch was already only two and a half hours gone by the time something interesting happened. Laura was idly scanning the banks of monitors when she sat up straight and yelled "Henry!" Unfortunately she had forgotten about the small space they were both. Her shout caused him to jump, almost upending the pan of rice he was cooking on a small gas stove.

"What" he hissed, not a little testily. She pointed to the screen, her normally chatty lips drawn in a tight slash across her face.

The screen showed a small square bathed in the evening sunset. In the corner a gang of three was mercilessly pounding an omnic. "We can't just let them beat that poor guy up." Henry sighed. "I know, I really, really do, but what we're doing at the moment is ridiculously illegal. All it would take is one curious police officer to start poking his nose about and we could all be attested. We are here to try and stop an international terrorist group, not three morons with a baseball bat." Laura fumed and stamped her foot angrily, causing the pod to sway alarmingly against it's precarious perch above the alleyway. "It's not fair" she must angrily as Henry bought over two plates piled with steaming food.

They sat and ate in silence, Laura was still fuming and Henry wasn't about to risk another angry outburst. Especially when they still had 9 hours of being stuck in a confined space with each other. They both avoided conversation by constantly scanning the banks of screens, watching the sun sink behind the horizon and silently willing time to run faster.

The brooding silence was abruptly interrupted by gunfire somewhere in the town. Both Henry and Laura jumped before remembering what they were doing. Laura started flicking through each of the camera feeds in quick succession, looking for anything out of the ordinary. "Stop on this one," said Henry, poking her shoulder. The screen was completely black. "Is it broken?" Asked Henry, his mind leaping towards the conclusion that the camera had been shot.

"Nope" said Laura "the lights are out". She typed a command into the console and the screen flipped into various shades of green. It showed several bodies lying in an alleyway. One of them was lying below a very dented fuse box that looked as though the person below had been thrown, or at least shoved, right up against it.

Henry considered the scene for a second. "Let's get down there" he said after a moment's consideration. "At the very least we'll have a chance of finding up what Los Muertos is up to at the moment. Suit up." Laura gave him a crooked grin as she grabbed her helmet. "You've been waiting since we joined to say that haven't you." She caught a fleeting grin as his visor slid down to seal his helmet. "I couldn't possibly comment" he replied as he dropped down the street below.

They were both wearing combat suits which protected them from ankle to neck. They were fireproof, waterproof, shock-resistant and woven with carbon nano-tubes. The nano-tubes were essentially strings of diamond woven throughout the suit, dispersing force around the body, making the suit extremely durable and able to stand up to anything less than a direct hit from a mortar. You could sit on a hand grenade and live to tell the tale, assuming you were comfortable with the possibility of losing a limb or two. The helmets were just as durable and came with in-built communications, as well as a HUD projected onto the visor. The visor completely covered the face, maintaining anonymity and, y'know, protecting the face.

"Should we wake Tom and Sophie?" Asked Laura as they ran through the dark streets. "Not much point," replied Henry. "They'll take at least twenty minutes to get down here from the bunga- OW!" Henry, in between following his HUD and talking to Laura had just run straight into a low hanging street sign. "I'm good... ish." He said after a short pause with no small amount of embarrassment. They continued following Athena's directions to where the gunfire had come from. Laura sprinted round a corner and almost ran into Henry who has stopped at the entrance to an ally, peering down it. "The shooting was here alright." He said. "How do you know that?" Asked Laura, "it looks like any other alleyway in this town." "Use thermal," he replied. "The walls are hot where bullets have ricocheted off of them." Laura activated the thermal filter in her helmet and sure enough, the walls were littered with bright red spots against the cool blue of the colder areas. "Well whoever it was has long gone now. Athena can you see if anyone is still around?" "Activating mobile surveillance device." Replied Athena coolly. There came a whine and then a tiny drone pooped out of a small pocket on Laura's arm and ascended quietly into the night sky. For all intents and purposes it looked like a tiny black dragonfly.

A small window appeared showing the view from the drone. The picture flickered slightly before changing to thermal imaging. Henry and Laura were visible as two slightly fuzzy blobs crouched by an alleyway. "There are two significant heat signatures in your vicinity." Commented Athens. "Not withstanding all the bullet marks" replied Laura drily. "One appears to be a minor, it is unclear whether they were the source of the gunfire, however statistical analysis suggests this is unlikely." "And the other heat signature?" Asked Henry.

"That appears to be a male, advanced in years. It is highly likely this individual was responsible for some if not all the shots fired." Athena had an irritating habit of not elaborating on potentially important bits of information. "How do you know that?" Asked Laura impatiently. "The individual in question is in possession of a severely outdated yet efficient pulse rifle. They are also equipped with several sets of triple helix rockets and a biotic field generator" If Athena had been a real person Laura would've slapped her. "After him" hissed Laura, "Athena, keep tracking him but don't let him realise the drone is following him." "Affirmative."

They both started following the heat signature, Henry keeping a watchful eye for any road signs. "Have you actually thought about what we're doing when we get this guy?" Asked Laura as they ran. "Ask him questions?" Replied Henry. "See why he was going up against what I assume were gang members. It's not as though anyone else is regularly out and about at this time." "You're making this up as you go aren't you." Said Laura accusingly. "Notall of the time. Just most of the time." Laura sighed, "that's almost as bad as Tom's flying skills."

"That heinous insult was uncalled for," replied Henry in mock indignation. "I am far superior to- the heck?" The heat signature on his visor had suddenly disappeared. "Athena?" He asked, somewhat confused. "Where was the last location of that heat signature?" "Last know location: 45 metres northwest orientated north north west." "Can you put that as an arrow on the map?" Asked Laura. "We aren't all super intelligent AI," her voice dripping in sarcasm. A small arrow obligingly appeared on their map. "Well that's odd." Remarked Laura. The arrow was pointing directly at the wall of an alleyway. "Turn off the drone Athena, he's hiding somewhere and we have no idea what surveillance he has." The drone glided silently back down and tucked itself back onto her arm. "So," she started, "how do you propose to nab this guy?" She enquired as she peered down the unlit alleyway.

There came a growling voice from behind them. "How about we skip that? Now turn around with your hands above your head." Laura's eyes went as wide as dinner plates as both slowly turned to face the newcomer. Like the two agents he was wearing a visor, however it didn't cover his whole head. There was a shock of snow-white hair and a creased forehead was visible underneath it. He was clad in a blue and white leather jacket and was holding a very serious-looking gun. Laura vaguely recognised it from Athena's history seminars but she was more regretting her decision not to take her rifle off of her back. "Is this the best that Los Muertos can do? A couple of kids? Guess they spent all the drug money on the gear." He chuckled grimly to himself.

While he was talking Laura sent Henry a message that showed on the inside of his visor.

L: Any ideas?

H: He has bigger gun. Do not want to be hit with it.

L: So do we just play along?

H: Well tell him we're from a new illegal Overwatch.

L: K.

H: Not seriously.

They were interrupted by the man before them. "Cat got your tongue? Who sent you two idiots." Before Henry could say anything Laura quietly said: "Winston says hello." The man's eyes widened, you could tell by the forehead movement. He was silent for a good ten or fifteen seconds before he spoke again, his voice barely a whisper. "How do I know you aren't lying?" Henry and Laura exchanged glances. Athena made up their minds for them. A small projection of Athena's logo was projected into the air before them. "I believe I can provide clarity to this situation. While it is uncertain whether Winston's directive included a greeting message he did indeed initiate this mission." The man's eyebrows rose slightly. "Well well, the monkey feels like playing at soldiers." There was a hint of bitterness in his voice. "War isn't a game, optimism can't take down Talon, much less a squad of children." "That's not fair-" began Laura before the man cut her off. "Have you ever been in a firefight? Have you ever pulled the trigger and killed someone? I didn't think so. You're smart I'll give you that, Athena tells me you all passed her so-called training program in flying colours." They both felt a small tug of pride. "That means nothing. In the old days you would have trained for months before being allowed to so much as look at a weapon. Overwatch was the elite, the best. We made the S.A.S. look like boy scouts with water pistols. The only advantage you have is that you might be able to kill the enemy while they laugh, if you could pull the trigger." He was almost shouting at this point before he paused for breath, before sighing heavily. The weight of years was written into the lines on his forehead. "I'm coming back there, not for the memories, not to help out, but to bring that idiot gorilla back to reality."

H: Well done ma'am, couldn't have done it better.

L: At least he didn't kill us.


End file.
